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Judy Balan’s debut novel “Two Fates – The story of my divorce” is an extension of the story of “Two States – The story of my marriage” by Chetan Bhagat. The plot is about separation of the couple (Deepika and Rishabh) who are like Yin and Yang, intrinsically different but complementary in nature. While the pair plots for their severance, their family unknowingly conspires against their divorce. Two Fates is story of these opposing forces, full of humour, sarcasm and some high schoolish turn of events.

Yin Yang Symbol

Judy narrates the story through the protagonist Deepika’s perspective and sticks to Aam-Janata syle of writing – use of plan language. Though the story is fun, Judy’s story is built around some very hard-core beliefs of the Indian society like inter-class or inter-religion marriages are social stigma, divorce decisions are not personal but family decisions, non-conventional form of vocation/studies/career like writing, vetenary doctor etc are not easily accepted by society. The author is also bold in presenting the sexual life of the couple in a very comic way.

The central characters of the novel might relate to many urban cosmopolitan citizens but the turn of events presented in the story like the baby making conspiracy by the families, the events related to the clandestine divorce, the union of the two inter-community families involved, the openness of the family to talk about sex etc are way-off from the life of a common man. The constantly-fighting-yet-loving-sort-of-relationship between Deepika and Rishabh is also expected to strike a chord with many couples.

Judy’s job of extending Chetan’s story line is remarkable as I believe extending someone else’s imagination is more difficult than creating a completely new plot. Hence, I think that the book is better than many other books belonging to modern literati genre. The book is a stand-alone success and does not require readers to have read “Two States”. The story is racy, dramatic and quick read (Should not take more than five hours to read).

“Ashwin Sanghvi” in his second novel “Chankya’s Chant” has offered his reader two fictional accounts of king-making, which are set in eras, separated by nearly two thousand five hundred years. A common thread of Machiavellian thinking (ends justify the means) runs through the juxtaposed stories in which the protagonist of the stories (Chankya in the older one and Pandit Gangasagar in the modern story) pull off wicked strategies to install their protégés in the corridor of power.

The protagonists are portrayed as very determined, omniscient & omnipotent. The events in the stories always sway in the favor of the protagonist – which as per me is the downside of the story. The machinations of the two king-makers finally fructify with Chandragupta being coroneted as king of old Bharat while Chandini ends up taking oath as Prime Minister of India. The plots give the reader a peep into corruptive and divisive politics of India, which is akin to the greed and venality of ancient Bharat. Some of the political turn of events presented in the story seems to inspired by past and current political events & environment of India. A politically literate Indian reader can easily relate these events of the story with the real events of today’s politics.

Ashwin has deftly combined his ability of story telling with his passion for history and mythology. The work feels to be well researched. The turn of events in the two plots is broadly similar and hence the reader might feel the story in the modern day to be slightly less intriguing than the older story. The author has peppered the book with quotes borrowed from television series Yes Minister & Yes Prime Minster and from famous personalities like Oscar Wilde, Benjamin Franklin, Napolean Bonaparte etc, which made reading more interesting for me.

The author has deviated from the common storyline of the neo-literature of India (campus stories, tragedy stories about love, urban life stories and office politics stories) by foraying into writing a historical fictional and will give the audience of the neo-Indian Literature genre a much needed change. The language of the book is easily comprehendible and the plots will keep the reader riveted for majority of the time and is a light read.

One must not read the book for educative purpose but for entertainment. For the confluence of mythology, history and fictional story-telling in his work, I award Sanghvi a 3.5 out of 5 rating for “Chankya’s Chant”. You can read the sample chapter of the book here.

P.S: By publishing the book, Westland publishers seem to have hit the nail on the head this time as well – “Chankya’s Chant” has sold more than 50000 copies within 7 months of its launch. Westland publishers have published many recent best sellers like “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish by Rashmi Bansal”, “Don’t Loose Your Mind, Loose Your Weight –Rujuta Diwekar”.